Whimsical

11152014 Is a Picture Worth More Than a 1,000 Words

This is an awesome picture of Mark Adams and his brother.

I’m sure that the person snapping the picture way back in the day caught the brothers unaware.

However, Mark’s “Fast Times at Ridgemont High” expression and his haircut combined with the bewildered look of weirdness on his brother Roy’s face is indicative of a classic picture to me.

I can’t help but laugh, after all these years of seeing it.

Gift, Minimalism

11142014 Canvas-Size Photos – Great Wall or Gift Idea

Wal-Mart Link (I hope it will continue to work…)

Wal-Mart, among other retailers, offers some very nice photo canvases for reasonable prices.

If you want to save a lot more money, you should scroll down or search for “faux canvases.” These are much cheaper than the canvas alternative. Like most Wal-Mart photo merchandise, you can crop and customize some aspects of the canvas.

For my own living room, I have several different sizes, creating a staggered pattern that not only fills the space better, but breaks your line of sight away from focusing on a specific picture canvas at the expense of the others.  

I’ve had many of these made for other people. You can choose from faux canvas to real canvas with wood frames. 

The above picture is probably my favorite, at least in terms of style. It’s a portrait of my wife and I, expect we posed backwards for the picture. When people see it on the living room wall, it baffles many of them.

Social Rules

11112014 Things That People Insist on “Knowing”

People are not more discourteous than they once were. 

The world is not growing stupider. 
The crime rate isn’t increasing. 
But the insistence in parroting these claims is an apparent epidemic.
For much of the human race, life is better than it ever has been and we have the ability to make life for the entire planet better for everyone if we focus on that goal.
People sometimes call me negative – yet they are often the ones spouting the craziness of how they feel the world is “dumber, more rude, and more dangerous” than in times past. It’s not true. But what a great sound bite.
Social Rules

11102014 Defending Yourself Can Backfire

Let’s face it: many times you are often right about something. When you are confronted by someone with superior debate or wordplay skills, it doesn’t take long to feel very defensive. Or stupid. Argument isn’t always about being right – many times it is about dominance. Why would you want to engage in that sort of behavior automatically? Some people are astoundingly good debaters and orators. Some are blowhards.

You should generally be open to listening to ideas and evaluate them based on merit – otherwise it is probably indicative of you being the one with the problem. But you also always have the final say about when or if you are going to listen to them. Anyone who is verbally bullying you into “listening” should be shooed away as quickly as possible.

I don’t know about you but I don’t learn much when I’m being screamed at. Or intimidated. Or when it feels like anything short of totally voluntary. I don’t need Bill O’Reilly in my life.

I have a couple of people in my life who are so confrontational about any difference of opinion that I don’t even engage, even if they erroneously conclude that they have talked me into a loss. People who are really great at argument always rephrase your point to either ignore it to belittle it.The only real loss is one involving your time and energy.

(We’ve also learned that the only way to win is to not play the game.)

Many people also tell me that I come across as smarter and self-confident when I choose to stay silent. But mostly, like many people, I find it hard to not engage. The more pompous the accuser, the more difficult it is for me to avoid putting my foot in the other person’s mouth.

 

Social Rules, Technology

11112014 Facebook and Social Media Reveal More Than You Realize…

Originally, I had snippets of posts from people on FB. Some of the profanity, violence, and anger is difficult to reconcile with living, breathing people. Were it 1 or 2 instances of this, it could be chalked up to hyperbole, accident, or a misunderstanding.Whether our president, senator or city council is liberal or conservative, I hate that people I know would resort to calling for hanging, beheading, or violence toward them or their families.

Personally, if you are frequently posting or hitting ‘like’ on posts that contain inflammatory and hateful language such as this, you are approaching some level of responsibility for it. If you hit ‘like’ where the majority of the people posting are saying things like this, all your protestations notwithstanding, it’s logical to deduce that you are generally in agreement with them. You can hide behind the fact that you didn’t personally hit ‘like,’ but it’s illogical to argue that you don’t condone hate speech or that type of discussion. I try to avoid being associated with the fringes, instead participating in places where people observe the decorum of racous debate and interaction without the need to resort to horrific name-calling and violence. I like crazy. Just not “angry crazy.”

It is evident that many people don’t have the “ticker” on the right-side of their FB – or if they do, they may not understand just how much it reveals. For the most part, if you hit ‘like,’ comment, post, share, or do any activity recorded by facebook, people can see what you are doing, what sites you are interacting with and click on these in real time, or scroll backwards in time and see what you’ve been up to. If you find me in the ticker, you’ll find that I’m clicking on a lot of liberal nonsense and posting zany commentary and pictures. I work to avoid jumping into the crazy pools of people spewing anger without any creativity or imagination. (I like when I’m insulted, for example, as long as whoever does it is creative and avoids clichés or boring methods.)

I’m having trouble reconciling the people I know with the hateful, angry, twisted activity that shows on facebook. People might be cautious about what they comment on or share, for example, but the ticker reveals a much different personality than that which they are concealing indirectly. I’m not stalking anyone, just observing and, over time, coming to conclusions.

It’s one thing to be a crazy liberal or conservative, but I don’t think it’s smart to be communicating your participation in hateful, angry content on social media. It’s certainly your right to do so, but please don’t be surprised when people start noticing a pattern of engagement.

I understand that you might hate Tom Cotton or Obama. Disagreement, even passionate disagreement, is a great thing. Poisoning your own views with violent language and crazy speech is only going to hurt you in the long run.

If you are hitting “like” or participating on the fringes of social media, FB is keeping track and in many cases, sharing your activity with others, even if you don’t realize it.

Holiday, Minimalism

11062014 Invisilbe Christmas

“Invisible Christmas.” This is the name I offered to a possible “Spirit of Christmas” idea a few years ago to a national media campaign. They decided to go with something else. My concept was that for the things that are most treasured, the ones we hold close, aren’t ‘things’ at all; rather, they are the connections, albeit fleeting, invisible to the eye, made of warm feelings and moments. I’ve often wondered what could have been better than the label ‪#‎invisiblechristmas‬ ?

I would have like to have been chosen. My message is really disguised minimalism. 

Whimsical

New Government Agency – The WTF

fbi2

I had a brilliant idea for the Feds. Instead of the ATF, CIA or FBI, why not create a Special Task Force and call it WTF? They could show up in force and knock down your door and scream “What the F happened here?” No matter how badly they perform their job duties, you could excuse it away by saying “Well, they are the WTF. WTF did you expect?” You’re welcome.